A Haitian-American judge running for a seat on Brooklyn’s Surrogate Court has been endorsed by the largest municipal union in New York City, District Council 37, otherwise known as DC 37.
Judge Dweynie Esther Paul, who is currently a judge in Kings County (Brooklyn) Civil Court, also received the endorsement of DC 37’s local unions—Local 371, Local 372 and Local 1407—as well as the unions, Teamsters Local 237 and the Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL).
Political observers said the labor endorsements will continue to strengthen Judge Paul’s clear front-runner status in the June Democratic Party primary election for the Surrogate Court judgeship.
Judge Paul, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, is a George Washington University School of Law graduate, Deacon of Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, and a former community board member.
“Judge Paul will bring her life-long sense of community to the Surrogate’s Court,” Shaun D. Francois I, president of the 25,000-member Local 372 District, Council 37, representing New York City Department of Education Employees, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), adding “she has no other agenda but public service.”
“Restoring faith in government, begins with faith in our courts,” said Anthony Wells, President, Local 371, Social Service Employees Union (SSEU), District Council 37.
“The Kings County (Brooklyn) Surrogate deals with the most sensitive issues. There could be no better choice than Judge Paul…”
DC 37 Local 371 represents more than 21,000 members, who work in nearly all city agencies including the courts.
“Judge Paul is the only choice for us, the people who keep New York working,” said Local 237 Teamsters president Gregory Floyd.
“The Alliance of South Asian American Labor is proud to endorse Dweynie Esther Paul for Kings County Surrogate’s Court Judge,” Maf Misbah Uddin, founder and president of ASAAL, told CMC.
“We need Judge Paul to stand alongside ASAAL as we protect workers’ rights, demand equal pay for equal work, fight for safe working conditions, and secure economic justice for all. We are proud to stand with Dweynie E. Paul as she is the best among the rest while bringing hundreds of volunteers to work hard for her victory in Jun. 22,” Uddin added.
Judge Paul told CMC that as the daughter of a labor union worker, she was “honored to receive these momentous endorsements from New York City’s largest municipal public employee union, DC 37, its affiliated local unions, the nation’s largest Teamster local union, and the Alliance for South Asian American Labor.
“With these endorsements, I know that it is my duty as a Surrogate’s Court Judge to protect these employees by ensuring that their assets are carried on from one generation to the next,” she said.
Judge Paul has also received endorsements from the Brooklyn Democratic Party and its chair, Haitian-American Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn who represents the 42nd Assembly District in Brooklyn.
As a Surrogate’s Court Judge, Paul said she will “fight to preserve the transfer of intergenerational wealth and bridge the gap between the court and the community.”
CMC
